The Infamous Watergate Hotel Room Just Underwent A Scandalous Renovation

Guests now can spend the night relishing in infamy (and luxury, too)

By
Danielle Fox

Nov 3, 2017

Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel

Forty-five years after the Watergate scandal, the hotel room that helped nix a presidency just underwent an oh-so-fitting makeover.

The Watergate Hotel tapped Lyn Paolo, the costume designer for Scandal, to help redesign the infamous room 214 — where E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy orchestrated the 1972 break-in — with 1960s and 1970s period furniture and tongue-in-cheek decor.

Amenities include a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a record player, binoculars and a manual typewriter. Framed newspaper covers shading Nixon replace the usual hotel wall art (which is usually not great anyway). You can still enjoy modern comforts in the room, like a 48” flat screen TV with episodes of — you guessed it — Scandal available for viewing.

For those who didn't pay attention in U.S. history: The Watergate Hotel, designed by celebrity Italian architect Luigi Moretti, was located right next to the 1972 Democratic National Convention headquarters. With binoculars, radios and microphones in room 241, Hunt and Liddy directed five “plumbers” from above in breaking in and attempting to wiretap the headquarters.

Courtesy of The Watergate Hotel

They were apprehended after a Watergate security guard noticed tape on a door latch in the office complex and phoned the police, which ultimately led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

Today, other crooks — ahem, we mean guests — also get in on the fun at the hotel with Watergate nods, such as “no need to break-in” inscriptions on room key cards and hold music that plays Nixon speeches. The luxury hotel ties the retro vibes together with staff uniforms made by Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant.

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